The Plan
by shetreadslightlywithair
Summary: Falling in love was never part of Annabeth Chase's plan. No, the daughter of Athena had never considered the possibility, not even once.


Falling in love was never part of Annabeth Chase's plan. No, the daughter of Athena had never considered the possibility, not even once.

Her plan was detailed, mapped out and approved by Athena. Her plan was to train hard – as _hard as she could, _mind you, which was why she was the best with knives in the whole camp. To study hard (she would have to enter the mortal world eventually, right?) and finally, to fulfil her lifelong dream: to become a successful architect and honour her mother in her designs. Her present goal: to go on a quest (it would be best if she could lead it) and prove to Chiron that _she. Could. Handle. Herself. In. The. Real. World._

Annabeth never got distracted. Yes, she would indulge herself in a little daydream about Luke now and then. She'd picture that blonde, cropped hair and those sky blue eyes, along with that sly, trademark Hermes smile. But even then, it only occupied – oh, five to six minutes of her time. Then she would go back to whatever she was doing, satisfied that she was at least one step closer to finishing her plan.

When she thought about Luke, however, the scar on his left cheek never appeared in the mental image. He was also the old Luke, the kind, loyal Luke that took care of her and Thalia in the good days. But Annabeth simply waved those train of thoughts away and dismissed them from her mind completely.

Then _he _came. That stupid scumbag, that spawn of the barnacle-encrusted, fish-smelling god. The son of _her mother's rival, her mother's sworn enemy. Otherwise known as Poseidon. _And, quite annoyingly, he began to occupy her mind. Day by day, minute by minute, until he was practically the main character of the play of her thoughts.

He was irritatingly good-looking. Of course, she would _never in her life _tell him that, but it was the raw truth. His windswept raven hair and those piercing, intense, _sea green eyes_ – she wasn't surprised when he started to be the talk of the Aphrodite cabin once he hit fifteen and ditched the scrawny figure. She guessed that the fact he was starting to work out scored him brownie points with the girls.

Oh, how Annabeth loathed him! His brain was just – so – it – was – bursting to the seam with seaweed. He could be so _stupid_ sometimes that she didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. And then there was that stupid smirk that would appear when he, quite miraculously, was right and she was wrong. She didn't even want to get started on the way he could be so _obtuse._

But as she grew closer to him – they were lumped together, after all, especially when Luke betrayed them, betrayed camp,_ betrayed her _– she found out, grudgingly, that he had good points. He was so _loyal _it worried her – what if one of these days he took it too far and got hurt, trying to save one of them? She also discovered that he was actually _smart. _Obviously, he wasn't book-smart. (He would never be, not even if Athena blessed him.) But he was _clever_ and always knew how to save them, how to get them out of a desperate situation. Even if his plan was rash and reckless and had a 30% chance of succeeding (which happened most of the time, but the point was he got them out of some tight situations).

And so Annabeth ate the forbidden fruit. She broke the golden rule. She dropped below her own expectations. She lost her own dignity. She let the protective wall she had built around herself fall down.

_She fell in love with her best friend, Percy Jackson. _

For a brief period, she couldn't swallow her pride and wouldn't accept the facts. Well, something shook her out of self-denial, alright. When he was marooned on Calypso's island for two weeks and _everyone thought he was dead. _

Even then, she rolled her eyes, telling herself she simply cared for her best friend. Then another something shook her out of her second self-denial. _That redhead. _

But then everything worked out and she found herself clinging onto something that was actually _permanent _– something she had been craving for her entire life. Everything worked out and her fairy-tale ended happily ever after. She rode off into the sappy sunset, la-di-dah-di-dah.

So nowadays when Percy said something blatantly stupid that didn't even make sense, she simply laughed. She simply threw her arms around him and kissed him.

Because life was short and if she didn't enjoy the one thing she loved and cared about – _Percy_ – she was going to regret it, and no child of Athena wanted to do that, right?


End file.
